Boating and other water sports are popular outdoor activities that many people enjoy. Boats are generally inefficient because they are heavy and create a lot of drag in the water. While many solutions have been proposed for increasing efficiency for watercraft, including streamlining, reducing weight, and increasing buoyancy, most manufacturers today ignore the true problems of boat weight, drag, and efficiency, and instead attempt to overcome these problems simply by partnering with engine manufacturers who build bigger, more expensive motors to accommodate the performance demands of heavy and inefficient hulls.
One common solution in the industry is the use of hydrofoils to provide lift to the boat. A hydrofoil is basically a lifting surface that acts like a wing in the water, similar to the way an airfoil works to provide lift to aircraft. Traditional hydrofoils are nothing new. But while they have been around for decades, they have generally attempted to solve a different problem than the present invention. Traditional hydrofoils were created to lift military and commercial boats completely out of the water. They have also been used in sailing and watersports industries but have failed to become mainstream because of serious safety issues associated with loss of lift in the wings during flight due to ventilation and issues relating to landing the boat back in the water.
The problems of inefficient, heavy hulls are particularly pronounced in pontoon and tri-toon boats, since they are displacement hulls. Displacement hulls are designed to plow through the water instead of glide above it. These types of boats are generally slower, heavier, and carry larger loads than speedboats and other recreational watercraft, which have planning hulls that are designed to rise up and glide across the water's surface when enough propulsion is provided. Other efforts have been made to provide hydrofoil-type lift for pontoon and tri-toon boats, but these efforts do not provide the advantages and efficiencies of the present invention. For example, many pontoon manufacturers advertise and sell “lifting strakes,” which are essentially small protrusions extending from the edges of pontoons to help provide hydrodynamic efficiency. Additionally, another popular design in the art has been the Pontoon Water Glide, which is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,016,762. However, these products do not provide the design features or the designated lift of the present invention. For example, the product and patent mentioned above does not comprise a wing that extends substantially across the space between two pontoons and instead is designed as an additional displacement hull effectively resembling a third pontoon positioned in the middle of the hull. The present invention overcomes the above and other deficiencies by providing an efficient underwater wing system especially adapted for use in pontoon and tri-toon boats.